The Means and Ends of Saw Gerrera:  An analysis of revolutionary ethics in Star Wars

Nate Taylor

Origins: From Monarchy-Supporting to Militant

Although Star Wars speaks of Empires and resistance, and portrays authoritarianism as bad and rebellion against it as legitimate, its characters almost never identify with a specific political philosophy, despite the fact that it was inspired by the American empire’s war against Vietnam.[1] However, there is one exception to this, and that is when Saw Gerrera admits to being an anarchist in the television series, Andor.[2]

Gerrera didn’t begin life as an anarchist.[3] He was born on the jungle planet Onderon during the last years of the Galactic Republic, and greatly respected the monarch, King Ramsis Dendup. But the benevolent king was overthrown by Separatist forces and a puppet ruler installed in his place, and ultimately Gerrera lost faith not just in the concept of monarchy, but ultimately in rulers altogether.

This political awakening came through direct experience of state betrayal. Gerrera witnessed how even supposedly legitimate authority could be corrupted by external imperial forces. He became the de facto leader of the Onderon rebels during the Clone Wars, fighting to restore his planet's independence. The Jedi (Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and Obi-Wan Kenobi) provided training and support to his guerrilla forces, though they couldn’t be seen publicly backing his rebellion due to Republic political constraints.

Yet this alliance revealed contradictions that would later shape Gerrera’s anarchist worldview. The Jedi, despite their sympathy for Onderon’s liberation, remained constrained by their institutional loyalties to the Republic’s political machinations. Even well-intentioned authority figures found themselves compromised by the very systems they served.[4]

The death of Gerrera’s sister Steela during this conflict marked a crucial turning point. As Star Wars television showrunner Dave Filoni noted, ‘there had to be a price paid for their freedom,’[5] but for Saw, this price became a wound that would never heal. The loss transformed his understanding of revolution from an abstract political necessity into a deeply personal crusade against all forms of imperial domination.

When the Republic became the Galactic Empire, Gerrera’s militia were labelled as terrorists and rebels. But rather than submit to the new order, he rallied his partisans: ‘These have been hard years. We’ve lost comrades, friends, family… to the Empire. Dark times. And yet the fire still burns. Hope still burns. The Jedi are not yet lost. We are not yet lost!’[6]

Means Vs Ends: The Anarchist Framework

No character in the Star Wars universe ever seems to question the good intentions of Saw Gerrera (at least not on the rebel side). They agree that his end goal of freedom from the Empire is worthy. Where he becomes controversial is in how far he will go, and what means he will use to achieve these ends.

As Forest Whitaker, the actor who plays Gerrera, explains: ‘He understands that the universe could be destroyed and worlds could be destroyed if he doesn’t succeed. And he’s one of the only people who will do everything to make sure the Imperial forces don't. But what does it make you become? And how do you change as a person?’[7]

To anarchists, the means of revolutionary acts must be in harmony with the ends.[8] Otherwise, those who carry out a revolution will become as evil as the Empire they hope to overthrow, and the extremes they go to will end up being justified to maintain whatever power they regain. This was one of the reasons Mikhail Bakunin opposed Marxism, as he feared what authoritarianism it might lead to if it presided over a nation-state.[9] As Errico Malatesta wrote: ‘The end justifies the means. This saying has been much abused; yet it is in fact the universal guide to conduct. It would, however, be better to say: every end needs its means. Since morality must be sought in the aims, the means is determined.’[10]

The question of revolutionary violence has never been settled within anarchism. Whilst Malatesta argued that means must align with ends, he didn't advocate pure pacifism – he recognised that defensive violence against oppression differs fundamentally from the systematic violence of the state. Pacifist anarchists like Leo Tolstoy rejected all violence as corrupting, whilst insurrectionary anarchists sometimes embraced dramatic acts intended to inspire uprising. What unites these perspectives is a shared concern: that the methods we use shape the world we create.

The contrast with other rebel figures proves instructive. Karis Nemik’s manifesto articulates anarchist principles whilst maintaining ethical clarity: ‘Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.’[11] Nemik understands revolution as prefigurative politics – creating the world you want through the methods you employ.[12]

Gerrera’s approach inverts this logic. By embracing the Empire’s methods, he risks that any society emerging from his revolution would carry the seeds of new tyranny. So the question becomes: how much fire is it appropriate to use against the fire being used against you? To Gerrera – who has personally seen more injustice, persecution, cruelty, and death than most – almost nothing is too extreme if it’s effective in putting out the Empire’s raging flames.

The Anarchist in Practice: Segra Milo and the Spellhaus Compromise

By the time we encounter Gerrera in Andor’s first season, he has evolved into the embodiment of anarchist suspicion towards authority, including revolutionary authority. The series presents him as an isolated figure, leading a small band of partisans from hidden bases, employing brutal interrogation techniques and extreme methods that have alienated him from other rebel cells.

His crucial meeting with Luthen Rael on the remote moon of Segra Milo reveals the tension between libertarian socialist principles and practical resistance coordination:

Gerrera: What are you, Luthen? I’ve never really known. What are you?

Luthen: I’m a coward. I’m a man who’s terrified the Empire’s power will grow beyond the point where we can do anything to stop it. I’m the one who says, “We’ll die with nothing if we don’t put aside our petty differences.”

Gerrera: Petty? I am the only one with clarity of purpose. 

Luthen: Well anarchy is a seductive concept. A bit of a luxury I’d argue to a man who is hiding in cold caves, and begging for spare parts.

Gerrera doesn’t correct Luthen when he’s called an anarchist, because he is one. The “anarchy” Luthen references isn’t chaos (though the word has come to be associated with disorder), but a principled rejection of hierarchical coordination. When Gerrera states he has “clarity of purpose”, he’s articulating the anarchist conviction that means and ends are inextricably linked. His reluctance to subordinate his partisans to Rael’s broader rebel network reflects a core libertarian socialist concern: that revolutionary organisations, if they mirror the hierarchical structures they oppose, will inevitably reproduce those same power dynamics in any post-revolutionary society.[13]

The Moral Compromise

This ideological tension reaches its breaking point over the Spellhaus operation: an attack on a power station crucial to supplying energy to Imperial facilities. Initially reluctant to coordinate with other rebel cells, Gerrera eventually agreed to join the assault, but only to provide air support and not to take tactical orders from Anto Kreegyr, who was leading the ground attack.

However, just a day before the planned assault, Rael discovered that the Imperial Security Bureau had learned of the plan and would be waiting for the rebels at Spellhaus. The Empire’s knowledge came through channels that would expose Rael’s crucial intelligence asset within the ISB if they warned Kreegyr. Faced with this dilemma, Rael was prepared to let Kreegyr’s men walk into the trap to protect their spy network.

Crucially, Rael left the final decision to Gerrera: whether to warn Kreegyr and risk losing their intelligence asset, or to let fellow rebels die to preserve their strategic advantage. This moment crystallises an anarchist dilemma: the choice between immediate human solidarity and long-term revolutionary effectiveness.

Gerrera’s ultimate agreement to the plan, justified as being “for the greater good”, prioritises immediate strategic calculation over comradeship:

Gerrera: Call it what you will.

Luthen: Let's call it…war.[14]

This exchange reveals how even the most principled revolutionaries can find themselves complicit in the very power structures they claim to oppose. By accepting that some lives are more valuable than others for “the cause”, Gerrera adopts the utilitarian logic of state power, the same logic that justifies imperial oppression.

Liberal Reform vs Revolutionary Violence: The Mothma Contradiction

Gerrera's anarchist extremism comes into sharpest focus through his conflicts with Mon Mothma, leader of the Rebel Alliance. In 'Star Wars Rebels' Season Four – set after the events of Andor but before Gerrera's demise in Rogue One – their fundamental disagreement over revolutionary tactics becomes clear. When the Rebellion considered tapping into an Imperial relay for intelligence, Mothma urged a cautious approach. Gerrera showed up unannounced and called them cowards for not doing what it takes to win. After Mothma cut him off, he destroyed the relay himself. Whilst this denied the rebels the intelligence they sought, Gerrera saw it as preferable to Mothma's paralysis – striking a blow against the Empire rather than achieving nothing through endless caution.

Their confrontation crystallised the fundamental tension between reformist and revolutionary approaches:

Gerrera: If you continue to allow this war to be fought on the Empire's terms, not yours, you are going to lose.

Mothma: I will not be lectured on military strategy by a man who has proven himself a criminal.

Gerrera: The Empire considers both of us criminals. At least I act like one. 

Mothma: You target civilians! Kill those who surrender! Break every rule of engagement! If we degrade ourselves to the Empire’s level, what will we become? 

Gerrera: There she is! That’s the leader the Rebellion needs! Where is that fire? That passion when your people need it most? I hope, Senator, after you’ve lost, and the Empire reigns over the galaxy unopposed, you will find some comfort in the knowledge that you fought according to the rules.[15]

Mothma’s position represents the classic reformist fallacy: that oppressive systems can be transformed through moral suasion rather than revolutionary force. Her adherence to “rules of engagement” implicitly accepts the legitimacy of state violence whilst condemning resistance violence as inherently illegitimate. Imperial power doesn’t recognise the distinction between violent and non-violent resistance; both threaten its hegemony equally.

Gerrera’s response cuts to the heart of this contradiction. His challenge: “The Empire considers both of us criminals. At least I act like one”, exposes how Mothma’s moral posturing serves primarily to maintain psychological comfort rather than advancing liberation. Why accept the enemy’s rules when they’ve already declared you an outlaw?

Yet Gerrera’s dismissal of ethical constraints proves equally problematic. His orchestrated bombing of Moff Quarsh Panaka’s residence, successfully killing one of the Emperor’s most loyal servants but nearly taking out Princess Leia Organa as well, demonstrates how revolutionary violence can become indistinguishable from the terror it claims to oppose.[16] Such tactics follow the logic of what 19th-century anarchists termed ‘Propaganda of the Deed’: using dramatic violent acts to inspire broader uprising whilst demonstrating that the state isn’t omnipotent.[17]

However, this approach carries inherent contradictions. By adopting the Empire’s methods – terrorism, summary execution, disregard for civilian casualties – Gerrera appears to abandon the anarchist principle that revolutionary means must prefigure revolutionary ends. His increasingly brutal campaigns led Alliance High Command to censure him at Mothma’s urging, cutting all official ties with his Partisans.

Ironically, through her interactions with both Gerrera and Luthen Rael during the Andor period, even Mon Mothma eventually came to accept that active combat was necessary to overthrow the Empire, despite her initial moral objections to such methods.

The Descent into Madness: Chemical Dependency and Revolutionary Corruption

As Gerrera’s isolation from mainstream rebel networks deepened, so did his descent into extremism. The second season of Andor provides crucial context for understanding this trajectory through the revelation of his addiction to rhydonium, the volatile fuel that powers Imperial starships. His backstory of imprisonment in an Onderon work camp – where toxic chemical leaks killed most prisoners but left him somehow immune – explains both his physical deterioration and psychological instability.

During the siphoning operation with young recruit Wilmon Paak, Gerrera’s ritual inhalation of rhydonium fumes becomes a grotesque communion with revolutionary violence. His description of the chemical as his “sister” (a substitute for his dead sibling Steela) reveals how personal trauma has become entangled with political extremism. “Revolution is not for the sane, look at us. Unloved. Hunted. Cannon fodder. We’ll all be dead before the Republic is back and yet here we are”, he tells Paak, articulating a philosophy that embraces madness as a necessary condition for challenging seemingly insurmountable power.[18]

This chemical dependency serves as a metaphor for how prolonged resistance can corrupt the resistor. The rhydonium that fuels Gerrera’s ships also poisons his mind, creating a cycle where the tools of liberation become instruments of self-destruction. When he encourages Paak to remove his mask and breathe in the toxic fumes, Gerrera is literally reproducing his own trauma in the next generation of rebels.

The execution of Pluti (Paak’s predecessor), ostensibly for espionage but possibly as an expression of Gerrera’s paranoid control, demonstrates how revolutionary violence can become a compulsion rather than a strategy. His casual disposal of potential threats mirrors the Imperial methods he fights against, suggesting that prolonged exposure to state violence inevitably shapes the revolutionary in the image of their oppressor.

By the time we see him in Rogue One, Gerrera has lost his right leg to a basic cybernetic replacement, and his damaged lungs confine him to an armoured suit with a breath mask for supplemental oxygen. Yet he continues to recruit:

We are not insurgents. We are partisans. We are a rebellion. I bring battle-hardened fighters. I bring experienced tacticians. I bring pilots, a squadron of them. I bring the means with which to fight back. I am inviting you, both of you, to join me in this.[19]

Luthen Rael: The Respectable Revolutionary

The question of what you become when you go to such lengths is one that Luthen Rael also struggled with. He saw Gerrera as a useful tool, but an unpredictable one, a rough hammer to bludgeon with when that was the only kind that might work. Yet Luthen felt that, by using such people and encouraging such acts, he, too, was becoming compromised.

In Episode Ten of Season Two of Andor, Luthen reveals the personal cost of his methods to his Imperial spy:

I’ve given up all chance at inner peace. I’ve made my mind a sunless space. I share my dreams with ghosts... I'm condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else’s future. I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I’ll never see.[20]

Was Luthen so different from Gerrera? He made decisions that included sending thirty innocent men who were fighting for the same cause to their deaths to maintain one Imperial spy’s cover. However, Luthen maintains a better standing with other Rebel leaders, perhaps because he has a respectable side and doesn’t often get his own hands dirty,[21] though his actions could be just as risky. As showrunner Tony Gilroy explains, Luthen is ‘a chess player ... sacrificing a castle to protect his queen’ and ‘an accelerationist’ who believes ‘you have to make it hurt really bad in order to bring people to change.’[22]

Revolutionary Care: Building Sustainable Resistance 

If Gerrera and Luthen represent the psychological toll of isolated extremism, the second season of Andor offers glimpses of a different approach: revolutionary communities that actively resist the dehumanising effects of prolonged struggle through deliberate practices of care and connection.

This contrast appears most starkly in Cassian Andor and Bix Caleen's domestic life in a Coruscant safe house during Season Two, Episode Four.[23] Their relationship, rekindled after fleeing Imperial inspection on Mina-Rau, provides a case study in both the necessity and insufficiency of normalcy under revolutionary conditions. The safe house is meant to be refuge, but often feels like a cage, particularly for Bix, who suffers intense PTSD from Dr. Gorst's torture in Season Two. She walks through their apartment at night with a drawn blaster, unable to sleep, haunted by memories that won't release their grip.

Their situation reveals the diverging trauma responses that revolutionary violence produces. Bix remains stuck in the past, psychologically imprisoned by what was done to her. Cassian, by contrast, stays in ‘active operations mode’: protective but tense, constantly checking their surroundings, unable to perform the simple act of shopping without a hood obscuring his face. Their daily routines become tactical missions rather than moments of genuine peace. Whilst spaces of domesticity and normalcy are essential for revolutionary sustainability, they cannot by themselves heal trauma that goes unaddressed. Without collective structures of care and psychological support, even lovers attempting to build sanctuary together remain isolated with their wounds.

Their ultimate separation (Bix leaving to ensure Cassian fully commits to the Rebellion)[24] speaks to the impossibility of maintaining intimate relationships under such conditions without broader support networks. Bix recognises that Cassian would choose her safety over the cause, and makes the heartbreaking calculation that the revolution requires his sacrifice. This mirrors Gerrera's abandonment of Jyn, reducing human relationships to strategic considerations. Yet unlike Gerrera, who had no community to support either himself or those he claimed to protect, Cassian's story suggests the tragedy lies not in revolutionary commitment itself but in the absence of structures that could sustain both.

More promising is the camaraderie built between Cassian, Ruescott Melshi, and K-2SO during their card games in Season Two, Episode Eleven.[25] After Bix's departure, as showrunner Tony Gilroy noted, ‘the house has turned into a frat house’.[26] Cassian's new roommates Melshi and K-2SO drink and play the gambling game Rianza together on Yavin 4. These moments of non-violent connection do more than provide recreation. By creating contexts where revolutionaries relate to each other as whole people rather than tactical assets, such practices build the trust and solidarity that make coordinated resistance possible.

This scene treats K-2SO differently. The reprogrammed Imperial droid isn't viewed as a tool or weapon but as a comrade, just another blue-collar soldier of the Rebellion. Cassian, who grew up among workers treated as poorly as droids, extends class consciousness to artificial beings. K-2SO is subject to friendly mockery, but he's sassy enough to give as good as he gets. This embodies the prefigurative relationships that anarchist theory identifies as essential: the revolution they're building includes space for play, humour, and genuine friendship that crosses even the boundary between organic and synthetic life.

Unlike Gerrera's militaristic reduction of relationships to strategic calculations (exemplified in his treatment of sixteen-year-old Jyn), these rebels are actively constructing bonds that recognise each other's full humanity. The card games aren't escapes from revolution but part of building movements that can sustain themselves across generations without consuming their participants. When these three eventually undertake their unauthorised rescue mission to extract Kleya from Coruscant, their willingness to risk everything for a comrade they barely know stems directly from these practices of solidarity.

The anarchist concept of mutual aid finds expression in these practices. The card games, the domestic spaces, the moments of tenderness: these form part of building movements that can sustain themselves. What distinguishes these examples from mere self-care rhetoric is their embeddedness in collective practice. The card games don't function as isolated moments of respite but as ongoing practices that weave human connection into the fabric of revolutionary organisation.

This suggests an important amendment to the means-ends framework established earlier. It's not merely that violent means corrupt revolutionary ends. Movements organised around isolation, paranoia, and the suppression of human needs will inevitably produce isolated, paranoid revolutionaries in danger of being incapable of building the liberated society they claim to seek. Conversely, revolutionary organisations that intentionally create spaces for care, connection, and psychological recovery prefigure communities capable of sustaining freedom rather than merely seizing it. 

Rogue One: The Wages of Extremism

By the time of Rogue One, Gerrera’s trajectory reaches its logical conclusion. When former Imperial cargo pilot Bodhi Rook defects with a crucial message from Galen Erso, Gerrera’s paranoid interrogation using the torturous Bor Gullet creature demonstrates how revolutionary suspicion has curdled into systematic cruelty. The creature’s psychological violation of potential allies mirrors the Empire’s own methods of extracting compliance through terror.

Gerrera’s physical deterioration – damaged lungs, cybernetic leg, dependence on breathing apparatus – serves as an external manifestation of internal corruption. His body, like his movement, has been poisoned by prolonged exposure to the violence he believed would liberate him.

When the Rebel Alliance sends Jyn Erso to retrieve this information, their reunion reveals the human cost of Gerrera’s extremism. Jyn confronts him about his abandonment of her at sixteen:

Jyn: The last time I saw you, you gave me a knife and a loaded blaster and told me to wait in a bunker ’till daylight.

 Gerrera: I knew you were safe.

 Jyn: You left me behind.

 Gerrera: You were already the best soldier in my cadre.

 Jyn: I was sixteen.

 Gerrera: I was protecting you![27]

His abandonment of Jyn represents the nihilistic compromise of his revolutionary vision. Unable to imagine a future beyond conflict, Gerrera can only prepare the next generation for survival rather than transformation. His justification reveals how completely he has internalised militaristic values that reduce human relationships to tactical considerations.

As they speak, Grand Moff Tarkin tests the Death Star’s superlaser on Jedha City to demonstrate its power and eliminate Gerrera’s insurgency. Realising the danger, Gerrera releases Jyn and the other prisoners, urging her to save the Rebellion with her father’s message. But he refuses to flee, staying in the Catacombs as the blast consumes him:

Save the Rebellion! Save the dream![28]

When faced with the Death Star’s destruction, Gerrera’s decision to die appears heroic but reveals the fragility of his approach. Having spent decades building a movement around his own traumatised personality, he fears the revolution will not continue without him.

The Poison Legacy

Following Gerrera’s death, his surviving partisans rename themselves “the Dreamers” in tribute to his final words:

Staven: We call ourselves the Dreamers.

Iden Versio: Dreamers? Azen said you were Saw Gerrera’s partisans.

Staven: We can’t be him. We're just following in his footsteps. We’re keeping alive the dream. Saw was the face, the voice, of our cause.[29]

This transformation suggests recognition that Gerrera himself had lost sight of revolutionary dreams in favour of revolutionary nightmares. The surviving partisans attempt to reclaim the vision from the man, separating liberatory goals from destructive methods. Some may wonder whether Gerrera ultimately did more harm than good, but without his mentorship of Jyn Erso, would the Death Star plans have been found? Without those plans, would Luke Skywalker have been able to bring down the Empire’s greatest weapon?

Dave Filoni considers Gerrera ‘the original rebel ... the first one in a long line of people that got trained by Jedi to fight for themselves during the Clone Wars. He’s the beginning of what would eventually become the Rebel Alliance.’[30] Thus, this father of the Rebel Alliance helped Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi, trained Jyn Erso, influenced Mon Mothma (even when she didn’t want his help), and prepared the way for those who would come after – Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia – to see his dream realised.

Conclusion: The Impossible Choice

The figure of Saw Gerrera forces uncomfortable questions about the relationship between violence and liberation. His extremism, whilst morally repugnant, emerges from genuine encounters with imperial brutality that more privileged rebels can intellectualise. Yet Gerrera's function in the Star Wars narrative extends beyond his individual tragedy. He represents the extreme end of a spectrum that all rebels must navigate when confronting fascist power.

The distance between Mothma and Gerrera is not simply moral but structural. Mothma can afford to advocate for restraint precisely because others like Gerrera are willing to get their hands dirty on the revolution's behalf. Her evolution from rejecting violence to accepting its necessity doesn't resolve the ethical tension, it reveals how revolutionary coalitions depend on division of labour that allows some to maintain moral authority whilst others bear the psychological cost of direct action. The question then becomes: is this division exploitative, or a necessary accommodation to the reality that different people bring different capacities and limits to resistance?

Luthen Rael, who orchestrates violence without personally carrying it out, suggests a third approach: strategic coordination that accepts the necessity of brutal tactics whilst refusing to glorify them. He acknowledges corruption without embracing it as virtue. Yet his willingness to sacrifice others reveals how even strategic restraint can become utilitarian calculus almost indistinguishable from the Imperial logic it opposes.

The anarchist ethical principle that means must prefigure ends finds validation in Gerrera’s failures. By abandoning ethical constraints for strategic advantage, he ensured his part in the revolution could never transcend the violence from which it emerged. Yet, perhaps there is space for sympathy. His transformation from hopeful young rebel to paranoid extremist reflects the psychological toll of prolonged resistance under overwhelming imperial power.

In this reading, Gerrera becomes a tragic figure rather than a villain, a revolutionary whose personal wounds prevented him from achieving the liberation he genuinely sought. His story suggests that revolutionary movements must attend not only to tactical questions but to the psychological health of those bearing the burden of prolonged resistance. Without such care, even the most principled rebels risk becoming the monsters they fight against.

---

[1] George Lucas: ‘When I did it they were Vietcong. … That was the whole point.’ – James Cameron’s Story of Science Fiction, 2018.

[2] Although Cassian Andor was identified as an insurrectionary anarchist in the Andor entry of the Star Wars Rogue One Visual Dictionary, 2016.

[3] ‘anarchy’, ‘anarchism’ and ‘anarchists’ is used throughout the article to refer to the form of libertarian socialism that rejects rulers and states. 

[4] https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Saw_Gerrera

[5] 2013 Interview: Dave Filoni on Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season Five, Part 1. See: https://www.starwars.com/news/interview-dave-filoni-on-star-wars-the-clone-wars-season-five-part-1

[6] Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, 2019.

[7] https://ew.com/article/2016/08/11/rogue-one-forest-whitaker-saw-gerrera/

[8] In 1892, Peter Kropotkin wrote, ‘If the coming revolution is to be a Social Revolution, it will be distinguished from all former uprisings not only by its aim, but also by its methods. To attain a new end, new means are required.’ – Peter Kropotkin, ‘The Conquest Of Bread’, Chapter 5.

[9] ‘The Marxists console themselves with the thought that this dictatorship [of proletariat] will be temporary and brief. According to them, this statist yoke, this dictatorship, is a transitional stage necessary to reach the total emancipation of the people: anarchy or freedom is the goal, the State or dictatorship, the means. So, in order to liberate the popular masses, one must begin by enslaving them. … To this we reply that no dictatorship can have any other end than to endure as long as possible.’ Mikhail Bakunin, as quoted in: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/daniel-guerin-bakunin-a-libertarian-communist-before-the-term-was-coined

[10] Ends and Means’, Errico Malatesta, 1922. From Malatesta: Life and Ideas, translated by Vernon Richards, 2015.

[11] Nemik's manifesto’s title is, ‘The Trail of Political Consciousness’. The full text of the preface is first heard in Andor, Season 1, Episode 12, ‘Rix Road’, broadcast 23rd November 2022.

[12] See Fians, Guilherme. (2022) 2023. “Prefigurative politics”. In The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Source: https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/entry/prefigurative-politics

[13] See Fians, Guilherme. (2022) 2023. “Prefigurative politics”. In The Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Source: https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/entry/prefigurative-politics

[14] Andor, Season 1, Episode 11, ‘Daughter Of Ferrix’. Broadcast 16th November 2022.

[15] Star Wars: Rebels (TV Series), In the Name of the Rebellion: Part 1 (2017).

[16] Star Wars: Princess Leia #2 comic.

[17] Proponents of insurrectionary anarchism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries embraced Propaganda Of The Deed tactics like bombings, assassinations and arson targeting the state and ruling class. Between 1881 and 1913 eleven Presidents, Prime Ministers, and Kings were killed, leading to anarchists being rounded up and imprisoned, whether there was any suspicion that they were involved or not. However, such tactics were ultimately abandoned as ineffective and counter-productive.

[18] Andor, Season 2, Episode 5, ‘I Have Friends Everywhere’. Broadcast 29th April 29 2025.

[19] Saw Gerrera, to Baze Malbus and Chirrut Îmwe. ‘Guardians of the Whills’, Greg Rucka, 2017.

[20] Andor, Episode 10, ‘One Way Out’, first broadcast 9th November 2022. Written by Beau Willimon. This episode earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.

[21] However, leaving Segra Milo he kills a few TIE pilots and destroys an Arrestor cruiser. So he very occasionally gets his hands dirty. Thanks to Ryder LiuLin for rending me of this.

[22]  See Hollywood Reporter Interview with Tony Gilroy: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/andor-tony-gilroy-talks-luthen-rael-monologue-easter-eggs-1235258961

[23] ‘Ever Been to Ghorman?’, written by Beau Willimon, first aired 29 April 2025.

[24] ‘She’s Been Building Her Own Rebellion for Years — Now, 'Andor' Star Adria Arjona Is Ready To Lead’, Collider, 28 May 2025.

[25] ‘Who Else Knows?’, written by Tom Bissell, first aired 13 May 2025.

[26] ‘“It Was Sort of Like Alien”: Tony Gilroy Reveals How Andor Almost Introduced K-2’, Collider, 8 May 2025.

[27] Rogue One, 2016. Screenplay by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy.

[28] Rogue One, 2016. Screenplay by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy.

[29] ‘Star Wars Battlefront II: Inferno Squad’, 2017. A novel by Christie Golden.

[30] The Original Rebel: Saw Gerrera Returns | Star Wars Rebels on the official Star Wars YouTube channel.